Dax's Day

I was told every pregnancy, labor and delivery is different and now know it to be true from my experiences. Julia's pregnancy was rather uneventful leading up to a frantic labor and delivery that is now a very hazy memory. Dax's pregnancy had various scares and difficulties leading up to an induced, laid back labor with a frantic delivery. Okay, so maybe the frantic deliveries were similar!

(Those of a squeamish nature can skip straight to the main point: "I had a baby" and stop reading now ...)

We left the house around 6:40 am to be at the hospital for check in at 7 am. Christopher had spent the night so he could be here to take care of Julia during the day for us. At the hospital we answered questions and filled out paperwork and were eventually admitted into my Labor, Delivery and Recovery (LDR) room about 7:20 am. I got in bed and met my nurse, got hooked up to a number of monitors and started answering even more questions!

Around 8 am, Dr. McKeown stopped by to break my water. Generally he also starts a pitocin drip at this time, but he was very accommodating about my request to "see what happens" once my water broke and to wait on the pitocin a few hours.

Since I had (repeatedly) told my nurse that I would like an epidural, she went ahead and put me on the anesthesia list. At that time I was dilated about 3.5 cm and contracting very regularly every 2-3 minutes. After about an hour, the anesthetist came by, asked even more questions and inserted the epidural. At this point, I wasn't getting any medicine, but having it in place meant I would get medication MUCH quicker once I decided I wanted it. During the insertion, Dave headed out of the room ... he saw too much of that stuff last time. When he got back, he rubbed in the fact that he'd been down in the basement at the cafeteria eating waffles. Meanie! :)

And then we basically waited ... and waited ... and waited ...

On the television screen where my monitors showed my (and baby's) stats, you can see the stats of everyone in the labor/delivery section. So Dave spent a bit of time telling me how awesome I was doing compared to all the other women hooked up at that time :P Very encouraging. We had time to take some pictures, do some puzzles and just hang out. Actually, it was really nice because things have been so crazy these last few weeks, the two of us haven't had a lot of time to sit and chat. HA! It was a much more relaxed situation than when I came in last time!

I had them start the epidural pump around 11:30 am. It took the edge off, but I could still feel the contractions. I didn't realize that would happen since it went so differently with Julia.

Dr. McKeown came by to check on me around noon and said it would be another hour or two or three. He said I was right around 8 cm. This was about the time my contractions started pegging off the chart.

Around 12:45 pm, Dave was telling me something about one of the other women on the monitor and I looked at him and said, "I think you should ask the nurse to come check me and let her know I can't NOT push during these contractions." He turned back to the monitor and started to say something else and I said, "Uh, NOW!" Hee. I think his mind wasn't ready to hear that things were about to happen!!

The nurse came chirruping in, "I was just telling the ladies out there that I bet you were complete and ready to go ... " She lifted up the sheet and sprinted for the door, "Amy, call Dr. McKeown and tell him to RUN! We are CROWNING in here!" Oh boy! And then things really got crazy ...

The epidural had worn off by that time ... that I know. And Dr. McKeown didn't have time to get into a proper gown and the nurses didn't have time to prepare the bed ... that I know. And this one wasn't sliding out as quickly as Julia ... that I know. And I remember screaming at the doctor, "Just get him OUT!" ... everything else is kind of a blur until I could hear the doctor saying, "He's a big one!"

I did tell Dave later that I felt a weird sense of accomplishment having pushed this kid out into the world. It was hard work! And totally worth it ...

Some of my favorite pictures from the weekend ...

Our Little Man

One of the nurses commented "Wow! She sure is a LITTLE Big Sister!"

Our Family

Does this look like trouble or what?!?

Toes!

Proud Daddy

Pictures Anyone? No? Too Bad.

Daddy post -

The baby has "made his appearance" as mommy would say...and both mommy and baby are doing great. Exhausted, but great. Let's start with the tech specs:

Full Name. . . . . . . David Lee Bouldin, III
Nick Name . . . . . . Dax
Gender . . . . . . . . Male
Birthdate . . . . . . . 7 March 2008
Time. . . . . . . . . . 1:02 PM EST (6:02 PM Greenwich Mean)
Location. . . . . . . . Fort Sanders Regional Hospital (Knoxville, TN)
Weight. . . . . . . . . 8 lb 15 oz (4054 g)
Length. . . . . . . . . 20.75" (527 mm)
Muscle Tone. . . . . "Well Flexed" (according to the chart)
Eye Color. . . . . . . Charcoal Navy
Hair. . . . . . . . . . . Present
Head Size. . . . . . . Newby Noggin XL

And now, photographic evidence:

The bottom row indicates the contractions...and yes, those are pegging out at the top...
...but she endured it all with such grace.
Brand new baby with a fresh coat of Crisco.
He was a little more contented once he was bundled up.
Eyeing his mommy through a layer of eye ointment.
Bathed, fed and happy to put faces to the voices...
..."no, Dax, they weren't just in your head."

She's Here!

Santa visited us a little early to drop off the only item we asked for this Christmas: our daughter Julia Lynn.

She was due January 4, but made her appearance exactly two weeks early. Dave's parents and brother had arrived from Dallas that morning, and we spent the day running errands. I had missed my usual two-hour nap so when I started feeling funky around 5 pm, I just put it down to exhaustion. But by 6 or so, I could tell that the times I felt worst had a definite beginning and end and were, in fact, getting downright painful! I told everyone I was headed to bed, but when Dave came in I let him know that neither of us would probably get much sleep, but on the plus side, we would probably get to meet our daughter that night! He looked at me and said, "Uh, what?!?" And I said, "Yeah. That's my reaction, too!"

He started out trying to get a general feel for how often I experienced a contraction and how long the contractions were lasting. We soon realized that they were actually fairly close together and regular. Around 6:30 pm, Dave went to borrow his dad's watch to get more accurate measurements. By 7:15 pm, Dave called the answering service to let them know my contractions were every three minutes and lasting about 75 seconds. They said they would page the doctor on-call (Dr. McKeown) and have him call us. Dave started packing our bags (no, we hadn't done that yet!) because he was determined that regardless of what Dr. McKeown said, we were headed to the hospital! Fortunately when Dr. McKeown did call back, he said he'd meet us at the labor department so we headed to the hospital.

Since it was after regular hours, we had to check in at the ER. After they finished getting some information, a nurse took us up to the Women's Services floor. The nurses had me put on a hospital gown and lie down in a triage room until I could be assessed. At that point I was told that I was at 4 cm and my water had indeed broken. The nurse left to prepare a labor room and returned in about 10 minutes to wheel me down there. After she strapped on the belly monitors, Dr. McKeown came in to check me out and said, "Okay, you are completely thinned and at 8 cm!!!!!!" I wish I had been able to tell him "That's just crazy talk!" After that, things are a bit of a blur as we had three different nurses asking us questions, two other nurses trying to get an IV in me and find the baby on the monitor and Dr. McKeown asking for the epidural nurse to come quickly. The epidural nurse just blasted me with the pain meds since, by the time they made room for her, I was at 9 and a half cm!

And Julia Lynn was born kicking and screaming at 9:51 pm!
6 lbs 15.7 oz
20.5 inches

Whew! That was the most unreal experience ever.

Our daughter

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So cute ...

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Our Family